Artopoulos, G., Charalambous P., 'Crowd Simulation for Virtual Environments in Urban Modeling,' BETHA Series (IT: FrancoAngeli Publisher, 2018). Virtual Environments as a Technological Interface between Built Heritage and the Sustainable Development of the City Georgios Artopoulos Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Centre, The Cyprus Institute, Cyprus Panayiotis Charalambous Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center, The Cyprus Institute, Cyprus ABSTRACT This article proposes a methodology for the cross-disciplinary study and analysis of complex urban realities, such as the historic city of Nicosia, Cyprus, the last divided capital of Europe, with the use of advanced digital tools for the creation and development of real-time virtual environments for research and collaboration that explore the capacity of analysing data of users’ behaviour in space. This research envisions contributing a fresh understanding of cultural and functional pressures in Nicosia’s contested urban environment through the analysis of observational data. The objective of this research is development of a digital platform, which through immersion, interactive design and crowd simulation will enable the evaluation of alternative planning scenarios and design interventions in the context of the management plan of built heritage in open public spaces that used to be popular within the urban fabric of European cities but are now forgotten or in limbo due to political, economic, or social pressures. Keywords: Virtual reality and augmented reality; ICT; Heritage documentation and management; Interactive environments; Spatially distributed narratives; Crowd simulation; Crowd analysis. INTRODUCTION This article presents research that combines spatially distributed narrative structures, immersive technologies and participatory design aspects with urban modelling and computational simulations, as well as digital documentation and reconstruction techniques, for the development of a new inclusive practice of re-activating historic urban sites that have been neglected. The main objective of this research is to capture and visualise the historic palimpsest of urban environments in Mediterranean cities such as Nicosia and at the same time to engage users and local communities in the creative aspects of these patrimonies’ management. This effort is built on a simulated immersive environment that offers opportunities to users for interaction with new media in order for them to explore the transformation of heritage sites through the years – from their construction to present day – in consent with the bodily experience of sojourning in surrounding areas of the city. Through the operation of digital interaction booths, planned to be installed on site and at the premises of the research organisations participating in this effort (Figure 2[8]), the presented virtual environment will serve as a testing platform for the Municipality, the stakeholders, researchers and professionals working in the field to simulate possible site management, and the associated urban design, strategies prior to their implementation.